1960 Academy Awards Best Actress Nominees Ranked Today
1960 Best Actress nominees
The 1960 Academy Awards Best Actress race featured Elizabeth Taylor, Greer Garson, Deborah Kerr, Shirley MacLaine, and Melina Mercouri, with Simone Signoret ultimately winning for Room at the Top. If you are looking for the nominees people most often argue were "robbed," the strongest case is usually made for Taylor's star-making turn in BUtterfield 8 and MacLaine's sharp, era-defining performance in The Apartment, both of which remain central to awards-history debates today.
Why this race still matters
The 32nd Academy Awards, honoring films released in 1959, were held on April 4, 1960, at the RKO Pantages Theatre in Hollywood, and the ceremony is remembered for several firsts, including Simone Signoret becoming the first French actress to win Best Actress. The same night also saw Ben-Hur dominate the show with 11 wins, which made the acting races feel even more compressed and competitive by comparison.
What makes the category fascinating is that it paired big studio prestige with more modern, adult storytelling, a mix that often produces lasting "snub" arguments. In other words, the race was not just about who won, but about which performance best captured the transition from classical Hollywood glamour to the more cynical, character-driven acting style that would define the 1960s.
Nominees at a glance
| Nominee | Film | Common "robbed" argument |
|---|---|---|
| Elizabeth Taylor | BUtterfield 8 | Heavy emotional volatility and iconic star presence |
| Shirley MacLaine | The Apartment | Modern, witty, and emotionally layered performance |
| Deborah Kerr | The Sundowners | Elegant restraint in a respected drama |
| Greer Garson | Sunrise at Campobello | Prestige biographical work with classical polish |
| Melina Mercouri | Never on Sunday | International breakout with strong charisma |
The strongest robbed cases
The most commonly cited Best Actress "robbed" performance is Shirley MacLaine in The Apartment, because the role combines comic timing, pathos, and moral clarity in a way that still feels modern. MacLaine's Fran Kubelik is not just a romantic lead; she is the emotional center of Billy Wilder's film, and many awards watchers consider that the kind of performance that ages especially well in hindsight.
Elizabeth Taylor's win for BUtterfield 8 is another flashpoint, though in the opposite direction: some observers see the victory as a reward for an already immense cultural figure, while others argue the performance itself was sufficiently intense to justify the Oscar. The debate persists because Taylor's reputation, the film's reception, and the role's tabloid-era notoriety all fused into one high-profile awards narrative.
Melina Mercouri also belongs in the conversation because Never on Sunday gave the category a cosmopolitan edge that stood out in a field dominated by studio-era prestige work. Mercouri's presence helped broaden the idea of what a Best Actress nominee could look like, especially in a period when international performances were still less common in the category.
Performance context
Shirley MacLaine was not yet the institution she would become later in her career, but The Apartment gave her a role with enough bite and vulnerability to make her an awards threat for decades in retrospect. The film itself remains one of the most durable Oscar-era titles of the period, which helps explain why many film historians place MacLaine near the top of their unofficial ranking of 1960 "should-have-won" performances.
Elizabeth Taylor, meanwhile, was already a global celebrity, and that visibility mattered in an Oscar race where fame, timing, and craft often overlapped. Even critics who were not convinced by the film concede that Taylor carried the movie through a performance built on emotional abrasion, vulnerability, and melodramatic force.
Greer Garson represented a different tradition altogether: old-Hollywood gravitas, precise diction, and prestige biography in Sunrise at Campobello. That contrast is useful because it shows how broad the category was, with one nominee embodying studio legacy while others pointed toward the more emotionally jagged acting style audiences would see throughout the 1960s.
Winner and upset
Simone Signoret's win for Room at the Top was historically significant because it marked the first time a French actress won Best Actress, and the role gave the Academy a chance to honor a performance that critics viewed as mature and unsentimental. Her victory was not a fluke; it aligned with a broader appreciation for international cinema and adult realism that had been gaining traction in late-1950s awards culture.
That said, "robbed" does not mean the winner was weak. It means that the runner-up narratives were unusually strong, and in 1960 the emotional case for MacLaine and Taylor was powerful enough that the race still gets revisited in modern awards retrospectives.
Historical signals
The broader historical backdrop matters because the 1960 Oscars were not happening in a vacuum. Hollywood was responding to changing audience tastes, the rise of international prestige cinema, and a growing appetite for morally complicated stories, all of which can be seen in the Best Actress field.
- April 4, 1960: The 32nd Academy Awards were held in Hollywood.
- 11 wins: Ben-Hur dominated the ceremony, shaping the night's historical memory.
- First French win: Simone Signoret became the first French Best Actress winner.
- Modernist turn: The Apartment and Never on Sunday reflected a more contemporary acting style.
Top nominees ranked
- Shirley MacLaine in The Apartment, because the performance has the strongest long-term "should have won" consensus.
- Elizabeth Taylor in BUtterfield 8, because her win/loss debate remains one of the most famous in the category.
- Melina Mercouri in Never on Sunday, because of her international impact and unmistakable screen charisma.
- Deborah Kerr in The Sundowners, because of her refined, consistently admired dramatic control.
- Greer Garson in Sunrise at Campobello, because the role is respectable but less frequently cited in modern "robbed" discourse.
How to read the controversy
What makes the 1960 Best Actress race endure is that each nominee represents a different Oscar value: star power, prestige, restraint, internationalism, and contemporary realism. That diversity is why the category keeps generating debate, because different viewers prize different kinds of acting excellence.
In practical terms, the "robbed" label is less about historical fact than about cultural memory. A performance becomes "robbed" when it continues to inspire argument long after the ceremony ends, and by that standard MacLaine and Taylor are the names most likely to surface whenever the 1960 race is discussed.
The Apartment remains the performance that most modern awards fans revisit when they ask who should have won the 1960 Best Actress Oscar, while Simone Signoret's victory stands as one of the category's most important historical milestones.
Everything you need to know about 1960 Academy Awards Best Actress Nominees Ranked Today
Who won Best Actress at the 1960 Academy Awards?
Simone Signoret won Best Actress for Room at the Top, becoming the first French actress to take the Oscar in that category.
Who were the 1960 Best Actress nominees?
The nominees were Elizabeth Taylor, Greer Garson, Deborah Kerr, Shirley MacLaine, and Melina Mercouri.
Which nominee is most often considered robbed?
Shirley MacLaine in The Apartment is the nominee most often described as "robbed," largely because the performance has aged extremely well and fits modern tastes.
Was Elizabeth Taylor a weak winner?
No; Taylor's win is controversial mainly because of the strength of the field, not because her performance lacked weight or presence.
Why does this Oscar race still get discussed?
It remains notable because it sits at the intersection of old Hollywood, international cinema, and the coming shift toward more modern, psychologically complex screen acting.